All things BDiddy.

“When you do find free food at a church, act like you belong there. If you walk in all timid and nervous looking, someone is going to figure out your game and eventually yell, “Hey those deviled eggs aren’t for you!” If that happens, yell back, “I call them ‘angeled eggs!'” That will hopefully baffle them enough for you to lose them by sprinting across a crowded hallway intersection like a bad guy running a red light. Prevent this horrible situation by strolling confidently to the table with the free food, grabbing a donut as if to say, “Oh, here’s where I left that donut that belongs to me” and then walking away.”

A church in Dallas just got finished challenging their married folks to have sex for seven days in a row…and keep a journal about how it went. And it got a lot of attention nationally. ABC News even had him make an appearance on the weekend Good Morning America program. And the anchor’s questions crack me up. You’d think it SCANDALOUS to even mention sex in church.

Here’s my question: Why is it ok to joke about it, talk about it, read about it, and see it in movies and TV and magazines and billboards and pretty much everywhere you go…and yet there’s a hushed tone when it’s mentioned in connection with the church? I guess it’s just what we’re used to. And sure, it makes me giggle a bit as well. But why not? Check out the Song of Solomon sometime and you’ll see that the Old Testament is all about gettin’ it done in a biblical sense. So before you think about God in terms of what NOT to do when it comes to sex…remember, He invented it.

So it’s now just Justin Timberlake who’s “Bringing Sexy Back”, my church is also getting into the act. We’re about halfway through a PG-13 series on sex. And yes, attendance is up. It’s actually been great so far. If you live in or around the Triad, you should check it out. The only thing we don’t have going on Sunday morning? Sexual Chocolate.

Too often we overlook Veteran’s Day in the hustle and bustle of pre-holiday November. Don’t do it this year. Find a veteran in your family or a friend’s family and let them know how much you appreciate their service to our country. And take time out to say a prayer and thanks for the men and women serving right now as you read this in your comfortable chair. It’s worth your time.

Forgive me if I’m a little distracted this week. But you see, I’ve got FSU football on my mind.

Here’s the deal. We’ve got a HUGE game coming up this weekend. A season-defining game. A program-defining game. And you’re saying…BDiddy, it’s just September. Calm down. But no, I won’t.

Look, let’s be frank. Realistically, the Noles haven’t really been a part of the college football conversation for several years now. There’s the Chris Rix era/debacle. There’s Bobby’s age and rumors of his forced retirement. Lots of change on the coaching staff. Several embarrassing losses. Lack of leadership on the field AND off. School-wide academic scandals. Hey, it’s been a while since FSU fans have had something to be proud of.

So for us, the Wake Forest game could represent a new beginning. We’re hopefully putting the academic fraud situation behind us (several of our starters will be sitting on the sidelines simply watching this one). Bobby Bowden seems energized by the new staff. A good spring has crossed over into two excellent showings in the first two games (albeit Div 1-AA opponents). And I really like the direction that Assistant Head Coach-In-Waiting Jimbo Fisher is taking this team. Things SEEM to be moving forward.

But it’s all talk so far. It doesn’t mean anything unless we walk off the field Saturday night with a win over Wake Forest. If we do, we get tons of starters back and a suddenly-soft ACC schedule ahead of us. If we do, it would mean that maybe we do actually belong somewhere near the bottom of the AP Top 25. If we do, the nation could take notice that Florida State football is something to be taken seriously again. And if we do, we could very well be looking at the beginning of Bobby Bowden’s victorious ride into the sunset of retirement. IF we win.

So here’s something to get you started on this Tuesday morning…just days away from Saturday night’s kickoff. It’s brash. Confident. Probably a little ridiculous. But you know what? I like it. I give you QB Christian Ponder’s comments from just yesterday.

“You know, I got to say we’re not going to lose this game,” he said. “It’s going to be tough – I think everybody’s going to be prepared and everybody’s going to be excited and I think it’s going to be tough for us to lose this game.”

After this proclamation…awkward silence. Had Ponder, a quarterback with two career starts to his name, really just guaranteed victory against the highest ranked team in the ACC? One reporter told Ponder that he was pulling a Joe Namath. Orlando Sentinel writer Andrew Carter made mention that this was Ponder’s first guarantee, a moment to recognize and remember. There was some laughter, and some folks brought up the last time an FSU player made a bold proclamation, which was when Geno Hayes a season ago said that Florida’s Tim Tebow would be “going down.” That one didn’t work out so well.

Offered a chance to take back his statement, Ponder said, “You know what, I’m not guaranteeing anything. But I think with how prepared we’re going to be and how focused we’re going to be – we’re going to be fighting hard and I think it’s going to be tough for us to lose……We’re going to be prepared … everybody’s going to be focused this week and everyone’s going to be excited for this game. And I think we’re going to definitely make a statement.”

I didn’t see this until I checked in on my brother’s blog this morning. And I really hate to see this. Jerry Reed died Sept. 1 at his home in the Nashville suburb of Brentwood. He had emphysema.

Most people know him from “Smokey and the Bandit.” And no doubt, the Snowman was the PERFECT Ying to Bandit’s Yang. His performance never gets old in that movie. I LOVE it. As a matter of fact, when I was a little kid I had my grandmother sew an American flag patch into the chest of my down vest so I could look like Cledus Snow. No kidding. Always thought I would have a CB radio in my car when I grew up.

Some people might not realize that Jerry Reed was originally cast as the Bandit. Director Hal Needham wrote the screenplay for him to play the lead. But when Burt Reynolds found out about the movie, he showed interest in it and they changed Reed’s role to play the Snowman. As a matter of fact, Needham asked Reed on set to come up with a theme song. Reed went off for a few hours and came back with “East Bound and Down.” Needham immediately told him that if he changed a single note of it, he’d kill him. Jerry Reed actually did a lot more movies that you might be surprised to see. But apparently, he was always surprised that people knew him more from his films than they did his music.

You see, Jerry Reed was one of the greatest guitar players ever. He had a style of fingerpicking that no one had ever seen before. People called it “The Claw.” He used his whole right hand…instead of the two- or three-fingered approach that Chet Atkins used. The story goes that when Elvis recorded one of Jerry’s songs, “Guitar Man,” he complained to the producer that the guitar solo didn’t sound right. The producer let him know that NO ONE would sound like Reed except Reed himself. And Elvis promptly called Reed into the studio to do the guitar work for the final recording. Here’s a bit of what Jerry could do…

As you can see, he was not only a great guitar player. He was a great entertainer. This is a guy who used a hairbrush to play his guitar at the Grand Ole Opry. You’ll see few people more at ease on a stage and in front of an audience than this man was. You couldn’t help but enjoy yourself when you watched this guy…in concert or on screen.

“The Waterboy” in 1998 was Reed’s last movie. He decided not to do any more films and focus mostly on his music and touring live. “I turned down a movie because I don’t want to mess with those things anymore,” Reed added. “There comes a time in your life when you have to make up your mind what you love to do. You can’t do everything. God has blessed your life if He lets you make music for a living. It’s that simple. If you can get up there on stage and go one on one with a crowd of people and just whoop and holler and have them throwing babies up in the air, God has blessed your life. You can’t get that from movies.”(Read here for the rest of the article…written later in his life. Good read.)

Apparently, Jerry started to really figure things out later in life. “For 50 years, all I’d done was take, take, take,” he toldThe Tennessean’s Tim Ghianni in 2007. “I decided from now on it is going to be giving. And I’m way behind. We’re all way behind. We live this life like what’s down here is what it’s all about. We’re temporary, son, like a wisp of smoke.”

So it’s a sad day. And hopefully, you learned a little something about one of my favorite entertainers ever. A guy who always had a great sense of humor about his place in the whole scheme of things. “Lord, when I sing ‘East Bound and Down,'” he mused, “you’d think I was singing the national anthem.”

So you like the idea of Guitar Hero. You’re thinking to yourself: “Man, I bet I can really shred in my living room.” But at the same time, you’re thinking that maybe all those heavy doses of hard rock could be way too worldly to bring into your home. Well, you’re in luck.